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It's even more dire that Sony's action-thriller
"Bullet Train," which claimed the top spot for the second
weekend in a row with $13.1 million from 4,357 North American
locations, was the sole film to bank at least $10 million in
ticket sales. After two weeks on the big screen, the Brad
Pitt-led "Bullet Train" has generated $54.4 million at the
domestic box office. This weekend marks the first time since
Feb. 11-13 -- when "Death on the Nile" opened to a weak $12.3
million and Jennifer Lopez's romantic comedy "Marry Me" stumbled
with even less -- that only one movie reached at least $10
million between Friday and Sunday.
And the glacial drip, drip, drip of ticket sales is only going
to worsen as the box office heads for a near desolate stretch
with hardly any new offerings from major studios on the horizon.
While movie theater owners brace for the downtrend, they are
bowing at the altar of Harry Styles in hopes the pop heartthrob
will inspire audiences to return to theaters in droves for
director Olivia Wilde's mind-bender "Don't Worry Darling," which
doesn't open until Sept. 23. Until then, exhibitors will have to
make do with smaller thrillers and dramas like Idris Elba's
"Beast," which is coming on Aug. 19; "Three Thousand Years of
Longing," a fantasy romance with Tilda Swinton and Elba (again)
on Aug. 26; and the Viola Davis-led historical epic "The Woman
King" on Sept. 16.
In eighth place, "Bodies Bodies Bodies" beat expectations with
$3.2 million from 1,290 locations. After kicking off last
weekend in limited release, the movie has grossed $3.5 million
to date and plans to expand to 2,000+ theaters next weekend. But
otherwise, audiences wanted little to do with "Fall" and Diane
Keaton's body-swap comedy "Mack & Rita," the other movie that
debuted over the weekend.
"Fall" just barely landed in 10th place with $2.5 million from
1,548 venues. The movie, centering on two best friends who climb
2,000 feet to the top of an abandoned radio tower and find
themselves stranded with no way down, was relatively low risk
for Lionsgate as it cost only $3 million to produce and less
than $4 million to promote. It won't take much coinage to turn a
profit, and home entertainment will be helpful with that
mission.
Elsewhere, Steven Spielberg's science-fiction classic "E.T." --
which debuted 40 years ago -- grossed more money over the
weekend than Keaton's "Mack and Rita." The Gravitas Ventures
release premiered in 13th place with $1.03 million from 1,930
screens. Universal's re-release of "E.T." raked in $1.07 million
from only 389 Imax screens.
As expected, "Mack and Rita" brought out mostly older women,
with 74% of ticket buyers identifying as female and 69% over the
age of 30. They were not kind to the movie, which landed a "D+"
CinemaScore. Reviews were equally harsh, resulting in a bleak
26% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
With the dismal turnout for most other movies, Paramount's
ever-powerful blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick" swooped to second
place in its 12th weekend of release. The action sequel added
$7.1 million from 3,181 venues over the weekend, bringing its
domestic tally to $673.8 million. That means "Maverick" is
roughly $5 million away from dethroning Marvel's "Avengers:
Infinity War" as the sixth-highest grossing movie in domestic
box office history.
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